RCI-Royal Caribbean's liner Allure of the Seas arrived at Navantia Shipyard (in Cadiz Spain) on Friday (May 22) to start a delayed and revised refurbishment.
The vessel starts a 30-day technical drydock for mainly machinery maintenance works (navigation and propulsion) and hull cleaning and repainting. The originally planned USD 165 million drydocking project is postponed due to RCCL's / shipowner's financial difficulties caused by the COVID-related suspension of cruises fleetwide and globally. The current drydocking project has an estimated cost of ~EUR 16 million (~USD 17,5 M).
Allure OTS was scheduled to enter the port of Cadiz last week. However, Spain's Department of Health prohibited the vessel from entering, because of too many crew onboard.
Subsequently, the ban was lifted when the crew was reduced to 301. They are not allowed to disembark the ship at any time. Additional 60 technicians (RCI personnel) are due to be flown to Spain, undergo testing and remain in a hotel (waiting for the test results) then to be transferred to Allure OTS.